On June 23, 2001, Bath Iron Works will launch the USS Mason, an Aegis Destroyer. This will be the last time they slide a ship down the ways and into the water. They have a new facility where they build the ship on level ground, roll it into a drydock, and then lower it into the water.

Ships have been built in this area for the last 393 years and this is just another innovation but the transition is difficult to accept. If you haven't seen a traditional ship launch it may not mean much but it is very exciting. The new ship slides down into the water and floats for the first time. As she goes all the surrounding ships and boats sound their whistles and horns while in the town and the 'yard the fire whistles blow. There is great excitement as the tugs struggle to capture the new baby and wrestle her into the pier. Wind and tide can have a great influence on this struggle and more than once a new ship has almost gotten away from them.

I will have a great opportunity to participate in this last launch. I have an invitation to join the Wedge Rally early that morning. We will assemble under the ship and drive in huge wedges that will raise her from the cradle and prepare her to slide down the ways. Later in the afternoon we will be able to assemble in the 'yard and listen to the speeches, watch the champaigne smash against the bow and cheer as she slides into the water.

And to keep this musical I plan to sing shanties while pounding on the wedges. At least until I run out of breath.

I would be very interested in as much details of the launch (how the wedges are driven, how man, how much time is involved, etc.) This fits in with a project of mine and I would love to know more about how a launch is accomplished.

Here in Oz most of our warships are built by the Tenix shipyard at Williamstown, a few kilometres from Melbourne. Working for one of the suppliers to the shipbuilding programme, I get invitations to every launch. Yeah, pretty stirring stuff to see them sliding down with all the whistles & sirens going and all the crowd yelling & cheering. Especially so at the launch of a warship with everyone aware that it will be home to a crew of young sailors and will have to protect them in tempest & battle. Being ex-navy I always come away with a tear in my eye.

I will be there pounding wedges too. This will be the third time for me. As a special honor to workers who have just past the 20 year mark in the shipyard, I was invited to pound wedges for the last ship down the ways. I am pretty excited about this event and Maggie will be there with me. She's pretty excited too. Maybe we can all get on the same crew together.

My great grandfather was at the launching of the Battleship Georgia in 1908 in his naptha launch the Black Fox. He picked up the King Wedge as it floated by in the Kennebec. We still have this shipbuilding artifact in a place of honor by the hearth.

Several years later after the launch of the Georgia, the Black Fox blew up on it's way down River from Bath and sent my great grandfather and great uncle into the icey waters of the Kennebec. Naptha engines were known to be a little dangerous, especially if they sprang a fuel line. A school teacher from Phippsburg saw the catastrophe from shore. She swam out to save both of them and then swam back out and retrieved what she could of the remains of the Black Fox. We have these artifacts on display also. Our family is forever greatfull to that school teacher who risked her life to save the lives of Edward and Theodore Stewart.

Lucky sod! I've been to one launch - of a small minesweeper at the Vosper-Thornycroft yard at Lowestoft - and it was an unforgetable experience; all those thousands of hours of work and hope being committed to a new element for the first time, the awesome sense of the sheer bulk of the ship as she goes down the slip with the huge drag chains rattling away... Enjoy it - I wish I could be there with you.

The first time I pounded wedges to "lift the ship," it was before dawn in a drizzling cold spring rain back in the mid eighties of the 20th century. Rain was dripp[ng off the massive hull of a frigate and the crews that were assembled from midship aft were spared this bone chilling nuisance. Brett, if it's raining on the June 23, 2001, get a site aft under the hull. You will also experience the shear weight of the vessel if you are under it and it seems dangerous and even more exciting. The comaraderie you feel with all your fellow workers focused on one simple yet colosal task is exhilerating! The vollies are short, but seem endless as we strike the ramming irons in unison against the wedges along both sides of the hull to bring her up even. The rest periods always seem a bit short, but adrenalin is in the air and you just feel like getting the job done. No other task in the shipyard makes the workers from all the trades feel as proud as "lifting the ship" for launch.

Years ago I visited Bath and remember that hugh crane in the middle of the yard. You can see that thing from miles away, cool. How big/tall is that monster? Too bad I did not have the time for the tour, we visited the town, the water front, dinner and left. I was on buisness at the NAS in Brunswick.

Shhhh! Both places are secret.

I'll have to go to Norfolk sometime for a launch. Or, do they still build ships in Philly?

I have been part of several launchings at Bath. I was the guy standing on the bow of the Tug with the heaving line with the task of getting the line to the ship before the wind took it into the bridge. I will admit that I was a little nervous the first time I did it.But I never missed.

Maggie and I just got back from the wedge driving ceremony for the Aegis Destroyer USS Mason. What a rush! We were able to sneak Maggie's sister Susan and her friend Will into the wedge driving crew about midship under the hull where we all drove wedges for a three minute rally in the rain. We took lots of pictures. I will send some along when I get them developed. There was a large turnout for the event and I didn't meet up with Naemanson, but I think I heard him singing a chanty down the line. We are going back this afternoon for the launch to watch the USS Mason go down the ways and hit the water for the first time. That will be the ultimate rush.

wdyat12 - thank you for the brief description. It left me wanting more. I am very curious about the launching details. The wedges that you drove, was the purpose to lift the entire ship off the supporting structure so that an undercarriage could go in on which the ship would slide down the ways. Once that is done, what holds the ship in place? They must grease the ways at some point. When is that? What actually triggers the ship's movement? Any details like that would be welcomed.

I am surprised that sloped launches are being done at all in a modern shipyard. It is interesting that a modern warship containing such high technology would be built on such an old-fashioned way. I had assumed that shipbuilding on sloped ways was both more uncomfortable an innefficient for the work crews and more expensive for the contractor. When you have a chance, I would love to hear in as much detail as you can what the launch was like.

Driving the wedges between the cradle blocks on the ways lifts the hull to free the keel blocking. The cradle rides with the ship down the ways when the trigger mechanism is pulled. The ways are convex or bowed to allow the ship to float off the cradle as she rides down the ways into the Kennebec River. Grease is applied to the ways under the cradle before the cradle blocking is put in place and the hull segments are lifted into place on the keel, a year and a half for some sections before the launch. It takes from three to four days after a launch at Bath Iron Works for the launch grease to float down river and wash up on Popham Beach 12 miles down stream. Popham Beach is the location where the first ship built in America, The Virginia of Sagadahoc, was launched in 1607. Many of the decendents of these first shipbuilders have worked in shipyards on the Kennebec for generations and some of their decendents buit the USS Mason and were present at the wedge driving ceremony and the last sloped launch at Bath, Maine, on June 23, 2001.

Oh! BTW the last launch down the ways was a spectacular event! When the trigger was pulled the USS Mason rushed into the water at breakneck speed leaving all on shore in absolute aw. As far as I could see, the launch went without a hitch, except the speeches by prominent dignitaries were obviously shortened to allow the launch to proceed at exactly slack tide. This was the most exciting launch I have ever witnessed. Launches will never be the same.